This video, in Mandarin Chinese, shows overseas Chinese living in Flushing, New York protesting against Falun Gong demonstrators standing outside of a local public library — who had been there for three days — in an effort to force the Falun Gong to leave the area. They say that, as Chinese, these Falun Gong ought to show their concern and support for their country, instead of denouncing it and refusing to provide charitible donations or assistance. And, perhaps more importantly, it collides with the usual image of Falun Gong practitioners as kindhearted, caring individuals.

Some of the seething language used:

“Falun Gong is an evil cult…everyone else is providing disaster relief, and what are you doing? You have no ancestors!”

“Where is your goodheartedness?”

“You’re not Chinese!”

“Falun Gong uses lies to create hatred. They have no humanity. That whole “kindhearted” image they promote is not Falun Gong.”

“Even Kuomintang, who we have a conflict with, has no problem [helping with disaster relief]. But you Falun Gong are still [condemning the disaster]….you’ve sold your souls!”

“Chinese people ought to have more responsibility [than the foreign workers coming into the country] to help….”

“They say they can foretell the future…so this is also their country, they are also Chinese. Why can’t they make the disaster go away?”

“The Communist Party wasted their resources raising [The Falun Gong]!….Shameless!”

The video is in Mandarin Chinese.

First, robbery, theft and fraud reveal a robber’s intention to get desired things through illegal means. The young generation born in 1980s and 1990s faces far more material attractions, such as computers, cellphones, and mp3s, than the previous generations. And they are given more than former generations. They are used to asking for more and getting more. But their parents’ limited ability could not satisfy their children’s unlimited desire for more. The delinquents’ committed robberies suggest these kids did not acquire and act on the social values that encourage success through hard work.

Second, intentional injury and rape indicate a disrespect of the well-being of others, besides a serious crime. Those delinquents show an extremely self-centered view of the world, in thought and action. In the delinquents’ mind, they are the only people who have feelings and rights. They lack an adequate capacity for emphasizing with others.

Third, gang fighting shows a belief in solving problems through violence. Society should provide multiple paths for peaceful resolution of disputes. In addition, society, community and family should model settling disputes and venting emotions through peaceful means.

Further reading:

China Youth Crime ‘in Rapid Rise’ – BBC

Crimes by Juveniles rise, China says – New York Times

Today, an article in the New York Times titled Lessons Even Thomas Could Learn really hits that point home.

After all of the egregious recalls over lead in the paint, many US residents had lost confidence in toys — many of which are manufactured in China:

…by September — with Mattel recalling millions of toys — lead paint seemed to be the norm for the toy industry. As Sean McGowan, a toy industry analyst, said in a front-page article in this newspaper, “If I went down the shelves of Wal-Mart and tested everything, I’m going to find serious problems.”

NY Times reporters wanted to discover just how true that claim was. They went out of their way to buy toys that had red and yellow paint — often more likely to contain lead than other colors — toys made in China and other countries with less regulation, and toys stocked by Wal-Mart and lesser-known retailers. Then they got the toys tested for lead.

The surprising result? None of the 50 toys had lead levels beyond what US law permits. That means that the lead problems weren’t some epidemic problem among toy manufacturers (including toy manufacturers in China) — rather, the US toy companies in the recalls weren’t practicing due diligence. It’s a cautionary tale for anyone who is quick to point the finger at China:

The companies involved in the recent recalls aren’t simply the unlucky ones that got caught. Either out of carelessness or a misplaced cost-cutting zeal, they are the ones that didn’t make the effort to keep their toys safe.

When Ms. Nordquist first had her toy-chewing, 17-month old daughter tested for lead this year, the results showed that she had more lead in her blood than any parent should want. When the girl was retested recently, months after the Thomas trains had been put out of her reach, the level had fallen significantly. Two tests prove nothing, Ms. Nordquist notes, but they are enough to make a mother angry.

I called Curtis W. Stoelting, RC2’s chief executive, and Peter J. Henseler, its president, to ask why parents should have faith that RC2’s new safety measures would work better than its old ones. Neither executive called me back. Instead, representatives from two public relations agencies working for RC2 sent me a memo that almost hilariously avoided most of my questions.

Ms. Nordquist had a similar experience. After mailing her recalled trains to RC2 and enclosing a letter requesting a refund, she received an e-mail message signed, “Consumer Services.” It didn’t acknowledge her refund request but promised that replacement trains were on the way. The message also thanked her for the trust she had placed in Thomas.

“I guess you didn’t bother to read the letter I enclosed,” Ms. Nordquist wrote back. “Any trust I had with your firm is gone. I do not want any replacements. I want a refund. You have endangered my children.”

I find it particularly telling how RC2′s PR team dodged the real issues in their response. Isn’t that something we often tend to blame China for — that is, a lack of transparency and a general tendency to avoid responsibility? Yet here you have it, a US company who can’t even admit they’re wrong, and has the hubris to think they can get away with this and still remain successful in the marketplace.

Before we chastise China as the root of all manufacturing evils, we’d better think about the US and other companies who are quite often the ones “pulling the strings” up top.

Let’s be clear here — green in China isn’t just some passing fad. And in some ways, being green is a lot more popular than you might think.

Case in point? Solar-powered water heaters. I remember seeing these handy green appliances at numbers of stores back in 2001, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were available even earlier than that. Today more than 30 million Chinese households own one, accounting for 80 percent of the entire world market!

The seventh-richest man in China today — Shi Zhengrong — built his wealth on none other than photovoltaic solar cells. His company, Suntech Power Holdings, is even trading on the New York Stock Exchange. While most of his sales are overseas, it’s only a matter of time before innovation will bring the price down to something more affordable to the Chinese public.

Meanwhile, environmental groups are making headways across the country. According to this article in the China Daily, over 4,000 environmental groups have sprung up around China since 1994.

The article also goes on to highlight one of the most important constituents for a greener China — students:

In Beijing, 1,600 students attend the Number Two Middle School, an institution widely regarded as one of the best secondary schools in China.

The school is revered for producing some of the country’s best and brightest, yielding students who receive top scores on China’s annual college entrance exams.

The students at Number Two stand out, however, not only because of their academic achievement, but because of their enlightened attitude toward the environment.

Over the last few years, especially since Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympic Games, environmental awareness has gotten a new emphasis among those who will be the next generation of China’s educated leaders.

Manufacturers in China are thinking green too. I referred to Lenovo above. Add to them a number of smart and savvy green Chinese automakers, who understand that being green means profitability for the future:

One experimental clean-energy car runs on natural gas. Another uses ethanol distilled from corn. A third has a zero-emissions electric motor powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.

These alternative vehicles were created not by a global automaker but by China’s small-but-ambitious car companies, which displayed them Sunday alongside gasoline-powered sedans and sport utility vehicles at the start of the Shanghai Auto Show.

At a time when they are still trying to establish themselves in international markets, Chinese automakers are already investing in such avant-garde research in a bid to win a foothold in the next generation of technology.

“This is the tide of the industry. If you don’t go with the tide, the industry will pass you by,” said Qin Lihong, a vice president of China’s biggest domestic automaker, Chery Auto Co., in an interview ahead of the show’s opening.

It’s not just “the tide of the industry” — it’s the tide of China. A green tide. The market is there and growing…so don’t let it pass you by either.

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Plugin by Taragana]]> http://www.thewuway.net/archives/66/feed 1 http://www.thewuway.net/archives/63 http://www.thewuway.net/archives/63#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2007 02:43:11 +0000 Jun http://www.thewuway.net/archives/63 A girl from Shanghai named Tang Meijie — featured in the New York Times Magazine article “Re-Education” — soon became the focus of major media in China following her admission into Harvard College in December, 2004. The press talked her up as every Chinese parent’s dream child. Headlines such as “What Does Her Success Tell us” (Shanghai Students’ Post) and “Meijie Knocked at the Door of Harvard. Do You Want to Copy?” (The Morning News Express) marveled at this winner of 76 prizes at the “city level” in China. Journalists were clamoring to profile her, and publishers hoped to turn a good profit from writing up her life story. Even private corporations took notice. A director of Goldman Sachs’s China division invited her to the board of the private school he had just founded.

Why does entering Harvard make a girl so astoundingly famous in China?

Being admitted into an elite American school is definitely a piece of good news for Meijie. The vast press coverage of her can show how Chinese value education and how well-known Harvard is in China. Since few students in China can go to Harvard, she is really exceptional as the only one student in China admitted by Harvard during “early action”.

To Chinese, being in an elite school means far more than a degree. It means unlimited possibility for fame, power, wealth, respect and beyond. China has more than one thousand years’ history of such an elite scholarship, particularly in choosing officials through exams. Being an official in China always equals to being privileged in a society where people do not have equal rights. Officials enjoy free housing, travel, transportation, health care, and the right to make rules that serve their own interests. But only a few top examiners can be chosen to be officials, and only a few can go to Harvard. So, people are pressed to be the best–otherwise, you are worthless.

For too long, more than 2,000 years, most Chinese have lived an oppressed and exploited life. People always do not feel safe and are hence in dire need of safety. The long term suppressive rule seems to have demoralized the majority of Chinese people. They learn to cherish the only channel — the exam — to achieve a desirable life.

The individual is not valued just because they are alive. Under suppressive rule, people’s sense of equality has been destroyed. Everyone wants to be the few privileged, and to be superior to others.

Another serious problem that can be seen from this “Harvard girl carnival” is the lack of independent critical thinking among Chinese. Why are so many people so interested in becoming the only one who can be admitted. Most of them are playing a definite losing game. Why not change the rules for the game? Why not let most of our kids get a high quality education? If most of our kids pursue what they are interested in and good at, our society can be a very productive and happy one. We should stop superficially judging people by their educational brand.

At a society level, providing enough and, more importantly, equal opportunities for people to succeed is more pressing. It is a huge waste of human resources when more than 99% of students cannot get into prestigious schools abroad and are judged as failures. Everyone has his or her own talents and the society should provide opportunities for them to find their own place. A society in which the majority is not being taken care of is a failed society.

When the major Chinese media are finally in a frenzy about how to provide equal opportunity and diversified channels for many types of success — instead of the next “Harvard girl” — that will be a signal of a real big change in Chinese society.

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